Monday, March 28, 2011

What am I Doing Here?

Using this blog for goal-setting, it seems fitting to post now, the night before a "strict" month of evolutionary eating after this past week of St. Patrick's Day and Girl Scout cookie seasonal indulgences.

Right now this is feeling like the month will be something of an image makeover. I long for a simpler, more elegant, less child-and-couple-centered existence. I love my child and the couple I am in, but I've recently moved to a suburban community that is family-focused in the extreme. I miss my adult life, my single life, my grown-up hobbies and interests. My journey this month will include fun stuff like closet-culling, more visits to cultural events, looking less grubby as I schlep my little boy to and from preschool and the health food store.

The shorthand idea I always come back to for this project I am documenting here is represented in this idea of cultivating a more European lifestyle.

So what exactly does that mean? For me, an American of Irish, Italian and a small bit of Swedish descent, it's a fair bit of fantasy. I have a vision in mind of my ideal self and I am seeking here and now to act as she would act. It's a useful psychological tool-- not to "pretend to be French (or Italian or whomever is the chicest and least likely to get fat)" but to slow down and behave consciously, choosing only to bring into my life those things that make life beautiful and fun.

I've been pondering and trying cultivate a conscious and beautiful life for a long time. I've been a member of the Yahoo French Chic/Je Ne Sais Quois group for seven or eight years - since I was at university, since before I was married or had a child. My other interests are varied but they dovetail nicely. I'm a wellness and beauty professional, a life coach, an avid writer and voracious reader. I'm an "attached parent" trying within a suburban nuclear family framework to  build community a la the Continuum Concept. I'm a real food advocate - slow, organic, local, sustainable: all the good stuff that is the food zeitgeist right now.

Evolutionary eating makes me feel better, after years of dietary experimentation that ran the gamut from strict vegan to typical SAD, than anything else ever has. As I get back to it I notice I have more energy for doing the physical things I like to do.

I am only now learning to drive; I walk a lot. I love dance and I take a weekly belly dance class and a weekly floor barre class. Time permitting, I take a short jog a couple of nights a week. And I love, when I have time, to do Bar Method workouts at home.

My major priorities beyond my health are my family and figuring out my marriage. I have a good handle on the parenting most of the time, and I will likely not go into detail about the marriage, though the anonymity of having no readership at all makes it tempting to explore these issues here. For now the likelihood is that I will use this blog mostly to cultivate the rich inner life and fabulous outer appearance of my "Inner French Girl," expanded outward to include bits from any culture, any time period as they please me.

More detailed goals are forthcoming. Tonight I'll stick with a renewed enthusiasm for healthy food and more exercise.  One foot in front of the other, one step at a time.

2 comments:

  1. Well, I am glad that you are here! I have many comments--first, your diet is the same one my cousin and her husband have adopted--and swear by. Second, I found my "inner French girl" (again) from the same book. The author of that article you linked, Cara Black, writes a great detective series--have you read her? Third, I have wanted to try the Bar(re)Method workouts and would love to hear more about them. And fourth (I promise this will be it), I was on Je Ne Sais Quois around the same time--I wonder if we ever "chatted"? xxBliss

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  2. Hi Bliss! Thanks for your sweet comments. I love paleo. I understand why people swear by it. It works. Cara Black- yes, I've read the first two and I like them. I've been lucky enough to see her read a couple of times, both unplanned I my part. She is charming and tres chic herself. Love the Bar(re) Method. If they offered childcare and I could justify $25 a class I would go in person but for now it is dvds for me. And perhaps we did chat. Are you still a member of the group? Thanks again for visiting and commenting!
    ~A

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